Keep going or kill the project?

Lyle and I spent the next few weeks reviewing our situation so we could make an educated decision about whether to try to finish this app. We tested the app that Johnny delivered, asked an expert to evaluate the code, and made a list of what might need to be done to make it usable as our version 1. We looked at our budget—which was still zero unless we used savings that had not been set aside for this project—and we talked at length about how much of our savings we would be willing to spend to keep going with this project. We had to consider that we might not get the money back. We also resumed the search for a developer so that we could make reasonable cost estimates.

The testing revealed a short list of things that were showstoppers for us. Primarily there was a bug. In software development, there are always bugs and, given time, developers can figure out what is causing them and fix them. Sometimes it takes a lot of time. There are some bugs you can look past and just live with but this one was  big—the app would just get stuck in between steps for no particular reason. There was no discernible pattern to when this occurred so we knew this could be a big time eater.

Our friend, Mike (the family friend who had helped us right at the beginning of our brainstorming about the app last year) gave us a frank assessment of the code (thanks, Mike!). Without getting into the techno-speak of it, there were a few things he thought might make the code hard to build upon and some things that might cause problems.

The list of what Lyle and I would want to do to turn this prototype into a "final" version 1 was short: fix the bug, add sound, add the social networking functionality. There were some things on our wishlist, but we were trying to be minimal for now so that we might be able to afford to do this.

Looking at online advertisements, Craigslist, and the many job boards for technology consultants, we eventually discovered a software development firm that could give us a cheaper rate and had demonstrated experience with the development and completion of iPhone applications. We spoke to the owner of the firm, quickly felt confident in his expertise and decided to get an estimate for what it would take him to complete our “version 1” app. We gave him a list of the tasks we thought were the minimum features and fixes we would need plus our wish list. He came back to us with a few options.

Taking all of this into account, we decided that yes, we would keep going. We were willing to use our savings to advance the quality and fun of the app and hope that Apple would accept it.